Q: Is it true that African American and Caucasian girls have different ideas of body type and beauty?

A: Research at The University of Arizona College of Medicine shows this is true. "Using what you've got" is a term many African American girls employ when describing their "ideal girl." It includes promoting the right attitude and personality.

For many Caucasian girls, there is no comparative ideal. They aspire to ideals represented in fashion magazines and swimsuit advertisements.

For African American girls, beauty doesn't have as much to do with physical characteristics as it does with how they interact with others. African American girls have a broader definition of who and what is beautiful than Caucasian girls.

Caucasian girls frequently describe the "perfect" girl 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 100-110 pounds with long blond hair. This picture emerges regardless of the speaker's own body type. Caucasian girls who meet the criteria of the ideal girl are admired and despised simultaneously by girls who don't meet the criteria.

African American girls do know what the majority of society sees as beautiful, but most don't subscribe to it. African American girls describe their ideal girl as being intelligent, having a good sense of humor, friendly, easy to talk to and fun to be with.

Sixty-three percent of African American girls in the study said that beauty is "having the right kind of attitude and personality when you deal with others." Only 2 percent said that beauty is "making yourself look as close as possible to an ideal body shape and face."

African American and Caucasian girls were asked about weight. Seventy percent of African American girls were satisfied or very satisfied with their current weight. Ninety percent of Caucasian girls had some degree of negative concern about their body shape.

Sheila Parker, D.Ph., The University of Arizona College of Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine